At the moment listings on Geocaching Australia are not restricted in any way. We have a decent, but not foolproof method of identifying which GCA listed caches are in areas where geocaching is banned. If you list a cache that is in one of those banned zones, the GCA website will put out a warning message about that zone and a link to the zone description which contains information about why geocaching is banned in that zone.

Geocaching Australia is not the cache police. We leave the cache listings to the community member to decide whether to list the cache or not. We are a listing service. We do not own the listing content, not the physical container. We are not legally liable for any actions taken by the cache hider or any cache finders.

However, there are concerns over geocaching in banned zones and action of the law enforcers to apply fines and penalties to people hiding and finding caches in banned zones.

As such, we are seeking feedback from the community in respect of future cache listings which are in geocaching banned zones.

There is a poll attached to this topic with a simple yes or no response.

Yes would mean you are in favour of Geocaching Australia outright stopping the listing of caches in banned zones. This includes all of the area covered by NSW P&WS. i.e. If you attempt to list a cache that appears in a banned zone, Geocaching Australia will not permit the listing.

No would mean you are in favour of the community member who owns the cache listing making the decision as to whether to continue their listing after being warned that their cache is hidden in a banned zone.

At this stage, the status quo will be maintained. i.e. We will warn a cache hider that their cache is in a banned zone, but will allow the cache listing to go ahead.

When we believe we have a good idea of the community feeling on this issue we will proceed with the wishes of the community in either continuing the status quo or stopping new listings. Existing cache listings will be grandfathered in should the decision be to stop new listings.

As much as I am concerned about the NP&WS bans on caching my discussions with QP&WS officers, research on the sensitive environments in NP's the observation of the occassional stupid cache placement and the all to often scrub turkey approach of some geocachers I have come around on the issue.

Setting aside the unfortunately fact that these areas exist, it may be worth looking at it from the finders point of view. When I go geocaching in bush (mostly Victoria to date fortunately where this aspect is still unclear) I don't take a map showing boundaries of parks etc, I just follow that little arrow on the assumption the hider won't have put a cache anywhere that would get me into trouble.

Personally, I don't want to break the law (regulation?), or have to explain to someone that I'm trying to find an illegally hidden object, any more than I would want to do so on private property, close to schools or in playgrounds etc etc.

On balance, I think that GCA regrettably should not list caches in such areas, at least where there is no ambiguity regarding the legality.

Thank you. We try to be as annoying as we can and making it global annoys everyone

We're going to let the poll run until January sometime, then review the position of the community against the goals and principles of the GCA website. The developers have some ideas which will necessitate a "final" location (in the case of a multi / mystery) to check against the various zones. This not a major change, but is not trivial either. Your developers will do what the community indicate, but it may not be immediate.

Just to give every one something else to consider, consider this.

Person A hides a cache in a banned zone. They get back to their computer after a long and arduous trek, maybe in a day or so and list their cache. They THEN find out that the zone is banned. Do you think they will go back and get their plastic container? Banning geocaching in these areas will not always result in less "litter".